Editing electronic documents

ABSTRACT

A theme to be applied to a document to be edited can be identified. The document and a preview of one or more components insertable into the document can be displayed. The preview can be formed and presented prior to the insertion of at least one of the components by applying the identified theme to the components.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority of Japanese Application No. 2009-249279entitled “SYSTEM, METHOD, AND PROGRAM FOR EDITING ELECTRONIC DOCUMENT”,filed on Oct. 29, 2009.

BACKGROUND

The present invention relates to a method, system, and program forediting electronic documents.

With the recent widespread use of the Internet, companies andindividuals have created multimedia web contents and published them onthe Internet on a regular basis. In general, web contents are created asmultimedia structured electronic documents that follow the format ofHTML or XML.

In order to help with web content creation, authoring software with aneditor capable of outputting, as a web content such as an HTML document,a content exactly as viewed on a display screen during creation andediting of a content has been offered. Such an editor is called aWYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. For example,International Business Machines Corporation as the applicant offers IBMWebSphere Studio Homepage Builder® as software with WYSIWYG editor.

BRIEF SUMMARY

One embodiment of the disclosure is for a method for editing anelectronic document. In the embodiment, a theme to be applied to adocument to be edited can be identified. The document and a preview ofone or more components insertable into the document can be displayed.The preview can be formed and presented prior to the insertion of atleast one of the components by applying the identified theme to thecomponents.

One embodiment of the disclosure is for a system for editing anelectronic document. In the embodiment, the system includes one or moreprocessors, one or more computer-readable memories and one or morecomputer-readable, tangible storage devices. The system can also includeprogram instructions that are stored on the at least one of the one ormore storage devices for execution by at least one of the one or moreprocessors via at least one of the one or more memories. The programinstructions can identify a theme to be applied to a document to beedited. The program instructions can display the document and a previewof one or more components insertable into the document. The preview canbe formed and presented prior to the insertion of at least one of thecomponents by applying the identified theme to the components.

One embodiment of the disclosure is for a computer program product forediting an electronic document. In the embodiment, the computer programproduct includes one or more computer-readable storage devices andprogram instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storagedevices. The program instructions can identify a theme to be applied toa document to be edited. The program instructions can display thedocument and a preview of one or more components insertable into thedocument. The preview can be formed and presented prior to the insertionof at least one of the components by applying the identified theme tothe components.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a view showing an example of appearance of a data processingsystem according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of hardware configurationof an information processing apparatus suited to implement the dataprocessing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of an authoring system according toan embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the authoring systemaccording to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart (first half) illustrating the operation of theauthoring system in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart (second half) illustrating the operation of theauthoring system in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart (first half) illustrating the operation of theauthoring system in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart (second half) illustrating the operation of theauthoring system in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is an illustration of an example of a graphical user interface(with theme unset) of the authoring system of an embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 10 is an illustration of another example of the graphical userinterface (after theme is set and before material is inserted) of theauthoring system of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is an illustration of an example of the graphical user interface(after theme is set and after material is inserted) of the authoringsystem of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 shows an example of a theme in an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 13 shows an example of an HTML source (before material is inserted)of an editing target document in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 shows the example of the HTML source (after material isinserted) of the editing target document in an embodiment of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

IBM WebSphere Studio Homepage Builder offers users the function ofinserting a material into an editing target document by performing amaterial insert action to select a preview of the material (a kind ofdocument component) from a material view in a drag-and-drop manner. InIBM WebSphere Studio Homepage Builder, when a theme is selected for theediting target document, the theme is applied to the material inresponse to the drag-and-drop operation and inserted into the editingtarget document.

However, no user can recognize what the material looks like at the endunless the material is inserted. Therefore, for example, when thematerial to which an actually inserted theme has been applied isdifferent from the user's previous image, the user may be forced to tryto find an appropriate material many times. This problem of reducinguser's convenience cannot be solved by any of the aforementioned relatedarts.

Therefore, there is a need discovered during the course of developingembodiments of the invention to provide a system, software, and methodfor efficiently supporting editing of an electronic document.

More specifically in one embodiment, there is provided a system, method,and computer program product for editing an electronic document. Thissystem includes means for identifying a theme to be applied to adocument to be edited, and means for displaying the document and apreview of one or more components to be inserted into the document. Thepreview is formed and presented prior to the insertion of at least oneof the components by applying the identified theme to the one or morecomponents. The preview may be formed by applying a set of one or moreattribute parameters associated with the identified theme to the one ormore components.

In one embodiment, the system, method, and/or computer program productfurther includes a means for identifying at least one of the one or morecomponents in response to a predetermined user action and inserting thecomponent into the document. An example of the predetermined user actionis drag-and-drop. The system may further include means which, when atleast one of the one or more components is to be inserted into thedocument, applies at least some of a set of attribute parameters areapplied to convert the component.

Further, the system, method, and/or computer program product may includea means for selecting a position at which a component(s) is inserted inthe document, wherein a set of attribute parameters is determinedaccording to information on the selected position and a preview of thecomponent(s) to which the determined parameters have been applied isdisplayed.

The system, method, and/or computer program product may include a meansfor allowing a user to select some of the set of attribute parameters tobe applied to the document, wherein a preview of components to whichsome of the selected attribute parameters have been applied isdisplayed. In this case, the system can further include means forinserting, into the document, the components to which some of theselected attribute parameters have been applied.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of the presentinvention may be embodied as a system, method or computer programproduct. Accordingly, aspects of the present invention may take the formof an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment(including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or anembodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may allgenerally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.”Furthermore, aspects of the present invention may take the form of acomputer program product embodied in one or more computer readablemedium(s) having computer readable program code embodied thereon.

Any combination of one or more computer readable medium(s) may beutilized. The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signalmedium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readablestorage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic,magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system,apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. Morespecific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer readablestorage medium would include the following: an electrical connectionhaving one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, arandom access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasableprogrammable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber,a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storagedevice, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. In the context of this document, a computer readable storagemedium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a programfor use by or in connection with an instruction execution system,apparatus, or device.

A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signalwith computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, inbaseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may takeany of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to,electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof. Acomputer readable signal medium may be any computer readable medium thatis not a computer readable storage medium and that can communicate,propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with aninstruction execution system, apparatus, or device.

Program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmittedusing any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless,wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination ofthe foregoing. Computer program code for carrying out operations foraspects of the present invention may be written in any combination ofone or more programming languages, including an object orientedprogramming language such as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like andconventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C”programming language or similar programming languages. The program codemay execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user'scomputer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user'scomputer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remotecomputer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may beconnected to the user's computer through any type of network, includinga local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or theconnection may be made to an external computer (for example, through theInternet using an Internet Service Provider).

Aspects of the present invention are described below with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems) and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer program instructions. These computer program instructions maybe provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, specialpurpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus toproduce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via theprocessor of the computer or other programmable data processingapparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified inthe flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computerreadable medium that can direct a computer, other programmable dataprocessing apparatus, or other devices to function in a particularmanner, such that the instructions stored in the computer readablemedium produce an article of manufacture including instructions whichimplement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer,other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to causea series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, otherprogrammable apparatus or other devices to produce a computerimplemented process such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer or other programmable apparatus provide processes forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks.

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described withreference to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that thefollowing embodiment does not limit the inventions described in thescope of claims, and not all the combinations of features described inthe embodiment are requisites as resolving means of the presentinvention.

FIG. 1 shows an example of appearance of an authoring system 100according to an embodiment of the present invention. The authoringsystem according to the embodiment of the present invention includes akeyboard 6, a mouse 7, and a display device 11.

A user can operate input devices such as the keyboard 6 and the mouse 7through a window-based graphical user interface for visually presentinginformation on working conditions and the like onto the display device11 of the authoring system to edit a web page as a kind of electronicdocument in an interactive manner. A WYSIWYG editor and a preview ofmultiple materials are displayed in a window, and a material view forproviding the user with the function of inserting, into the editingtarget document, a material selected from the preview is displayedsimultaneously.

In an embodiment of the present invention, when a theme is set for theediting target document, not only the document itself displayed in theWYSIWYG editor but also the preview of the multiple materials displayedin the material view are so converted that the theme will also beapplied thereto. The user selects a material converted to be appliedwith the theme while viewing the material preview images and performs aninsert action. The example of the material insert action in theembodiment of the present invention is drag and drop from the materialview of the material preview images to an edit view. In an embodiment ofthe present invention, an image after the material is inserted can begrasped before the material is actually inserted into the document,thereby improving user convenience.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of hardware configurationof an information processing apparatus suited to implement the authoringsystem 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. Theinformation processing apparatus includes a CPU (central processingunit) 1 and a main memory 4, both connected to a bus 2. Removablestorages (an external storage system capable of replacing recordingmedia) such as hard disk drives 13, 30, CD-ROM drives 26, 29, a flexibledisk drive 20, an MO drive 28, and a DVD drive 31 are connected to thebus 2 via a floppy disk controller 19, an IDE controller 25, a SCSIcontroller 27, and the like.

Storage media such as flexible disk, MO, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, etc. areinserted into the removable storages. These storage media, the hard diskdrives 13, 30, and a ROM 14 can record the codes of a computer programfor giving instructions to the CPU and the like in cooperation with anoperating system to carry out embodiments of the present invention. Thecomputer program is loaded into the main memory 4 and executed. Thecomputer program can also be compressed, or divided into two or moreparts and recorded on two or more media.

The information processing apparatus receives input from the inputdevices such as the keyboard 6 and the mouse 7 via a keyboard/mousecontroller 5. The information processing apparatus is connected to thedisplay device 11 via a DAC/LCDC 10 for presenting visual data to theuser.

The information processing apparatus can be connected to a networkthrough a network adapter 18 (Ethernet® card or token ring card) or thelike to communicate with other computers and the like. Though not shown,a printer and a modem can also be connected through a parallel port anda serial port, respectively.

It is readily understood from the above description that the informationprocessing apparatus suited to implement the authoring system accordingto an embodiment of the present invention is implemented as aninformation processing apparatus such as a general personal computer,workstation, mainframe computer, or the like, or a combination thereof.It should be noted that these components are just illustrative and notall the components are requisites for all embodiments of the presentinvention.

Various changes, such as to combine two or more machines and allocatefunctions among them, to implement each component in the hardwareconfiguration of the information processing apparatus used in anembodiment of the present invention can, of course, be readilycontemplated by those skilled in the art. These changes are to benaturally included in the concept of embodiments of the presentinvention.

The authoring system of the embodiment of the present invention employsan operating system for supporting a GUI (graphical user interface)multi-window environment, such as Windows® operating system offered byMicrosoft corporation, Mac OS® offered by Apple Computer Inc., or aUNIX® system with an X Window System (e.g., AIX® offered byInternational Business Machines Corporation).

From the above description, it can be understood that the authoringsystem used in the embodiment of the present invention is not limited toa specific multi-window operating system environment.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the authoring system 100 of anembodiment of the present invention. Note that each block in thefunctional block diagram of FIG. 3 can be implemented in the informationprocessing apparatus having the hardware configuration illustrated inFIG. 2 by making the CPU 1 read computer programs such as the operatingsystem and the authoring software stored in the hard disk drive 13 orthe like after loaded to the main memory 4 to cooperate the hardwareresources with the software.

The authoring system 100 of the embodiment of the present inventionincludes an input/output device 310, editing page storage 320, amaterial data storage 330, a theme storage 340, and authoring software350. The input/output device 310 has the function of displaying agraphical user interface or the like for creating content on a desktopscreen of the operating system in accordance with instructions of theauthoring software 350. The input/output device 310 also has thefunction of receiving operations and input of data for creating contentfrom the user operating the data processing system 100.

The editing page storage 320 of an embodiment of the present inventionstores data on editing target document 322 as a web page created by theauthoring software 350. In an embodiment of the present invention, suchan editing target document 322 is created in HTML language format.

The material data storage 330 of the embodiment of the present inventionstores material data 332 a . . . n as page components (elements) to beinserted in the editing target document 332. In an embodiment of thepresent invention, the material data can include, but is not limited to,any of image data, animation data, vector data, text data, and HTMLdata, or a combination of these data. The user of the authoring software350 can interactively select and insert, into the page, a materialstored in the material data storage 330.

The material data storage 330 of an embodiment of the present inventionalso stores, for each of the material data 332 a . . . n, the materialtype (photo, graphic, or character), the material category, informationon the availability of shape transformation of the material, andinformation on the availability of color translation of the material.These pieces of information are considered upon material conversion tobe described later.

The theme storage 340 of the embodiment of the present invention storesdata on theme (color, layout, etc.) with a sense of unity and to beapplied to the editing target document. The user of the authoringsoftware 350 can interactively select, from themes 342 a . . . n storedin the theme storage 340, a theme to be applied to the editing targetdocument 322, and apply the theme to the page, creating a web contentwith a sense of unity.

FIG. 12 shows an example of theme (“pastel monotone” theme) in theembodiment of the present invention. In the embodiment of the presentinvention, the theme consists of a set of parameters specified in XMLlanguage format, and is created as a file (theme file) separately fromthe editing target document. For example, the file name of the themefile may be “ . . . theme.xml.” Two or more themes the user candesignate may be designated in a single file alone or across two or morefiles. Each of tags <themecolor>, <themebgcolor>, <themetrans_color>,<themetrans_shape>, <themetrans_border>, <themetrans_contrast>,<themetrans_temparature>, <themetrans_colortemp> in the embodiment ofthe present invention is used to designate an attribute parameter to beapplied to a material to be inserted. An applicable parameterdetermining section 354 and a material data processing section 356 ofthe authoring software 350 interpret at least some of these attributeparameters, and apply the parameters to materials to convert thematerials, forming a preview of materials and instances insertable intoan editing target document along with a corresponding theme.

TABLE 1 TAG DESIGNATED CONTENT DESIGNATION METHOD <description>Description of theme Free text input <css path> Location where CSS fileto be File path/file name (e.g., referred to by editing targethpb9tm05_8.css) document resides <preview path> Location where previewimage File path/file name (e.g., file representing impression ofhpb9tm05_8.gif) theme resides <button path> Location where button dataFile path/file name (e.g., according to theme resides 05btn13.mif) <logopath> Location where logo data File path/file name (e.g., according totheme resides 051og15.mif) <themecolor> Main color to represent themeColor name (e.g., red) or RGB# (e.g., #33FFAA) <themebgcolor> Mainbackground color to Color name (e.g., red) or RGB# represent theme(e.g., #33FFAA) <themetrans_color> Color translation method Colortranslation method name according to theme and value (e.g., monochrome,light) <themetrans_shape> Shape transformation method Shapetransformation method according to theme name and value (e.g., round,light) <themetrans_border> Frame adding method according Frame addingmethod name and to theme value (e.g., kabuki, medium)<themetrans_contrast> Contrast conversion method Contrast name or value(ex. 1: according to theme high, ex. 2: 255) <themetrans_temperature>Temperature conversion Temperature conversion method according to themeand temperature name or value (ex. 1: hot, ex. 2: 35)<themetrans_colortemp> Color temperature conversion Color temperatureconversion according to theme method and color temperature name or value(ex. 1: daylight, ex. 2: 5600)

The above has described, with reference to FIG. 12, one example of themein the embodiment of the present invention, which includes CSS filedesignation and other parameters set in accordance with the XMLspecification. Since the XML and CSS language specifications are wellknown from aforementioned Non-Patent Document 1 and Non-Patent Document2 to those skilled in the art, a person skilled in the art can implementthe creation process appropriately after reading this specification.Therefore, further detailed description will be omitted.

Returning to FIG. 3, the authoring software 350 of an embodiment of thepresent invention accesses the editing target document 322 stored in thepage storage 320, and provides the user with the function of editing thecontent in an interactive manner by showing, on the display device 11 ofthe authoring system 100, a graphical user interface like a window 900shown in FIGS. 9 to 11 to be described later. The authoring software 350includes a theme setting section 352, an attribute parameter determiningsection 354, a material data processing section 356, a preview cache358, a material view controller 360, and an edit view controller 362.

The theme setting section 352 of the embodiment of the present inventionhas the functions of allowing the user to select, from multiple themesstored in the above-mentioned theme storage 340, a theme to be appliedto the editing target document 322 and identifying the theme. It alsohas the function of setting an additional sub-parameter for the selectedtheme, such as the degree of reflecting the theme or which parameter inthe theme should be reflected.

The attribute parameter determining section 354 of the embodiment of thepresent invention has the function of determining a set of parametersfinally to be applied to the material based on the theme selected by thetheme setting section 352 and the sub-parameter. In an embodiment of thepresent invention, the parameters determined by the attribute parameterdetermining section 354 are applied to the material by the material dataprocessing section 356, resulting in converting the material.

The material data processing section 356 of the embodiment of thepresent invention has the function of retrieving corresponding materialdata from the material data storage 330 in accordance with aninstruction from the material view processing section 360 (e.g., aninstruction caused by a material insert action such as to drag and dropthe material displayed in the material view to the page in the editview), applying parameters determined by the attribute parameterdetermining section 354 to convert the material, and handing it over tothe edit view control section 362. The material data processing section356 also has the function of retrieving material data from the materialdata storage 330 to create preview data from the material data inaccordance with an instruction from the material view processing section360 (e.g., an instruction to present a material preview into a materialview), applying at least some of the set of parameters determined by theattribute parameter determining section 354 to convert the material inorder to create preview images, and handing them over to the previewcache 358.

The preview cache 358 is a storage area for temporary storage of previewdata on respective materials converted by the material data processingsection 356. The preview data stored in the preview cache 358 can berefreshed by a change in theme or the like.

The material view control section 360 presents, as a material box, thepreview data stored in the preview cache 358, and generates and sends aninstruction to perform processing related to the material dataprocessing section 356 in response to the material insert action such asto drag and drop a material displayed in the material box to the page inthe edit view.

The edit view control section 362 provides a content creator with anedit view 920 used in editing the editing target document 322. In theembodiment of the present invention, the edit view 920 is a WYSIWYGeditor, which has the function of being able to output a web contentsuch as an HTML document as it is seen on the display screen.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart 400 illustrating the operation of the authoringsystem 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. Thisprocessing starts at step 405, and the system is initialized in step 410such as to turn on the power supply and to load BIOS and the operatingsystem. Next, in step 415, the authoring software 350 is activated inresponse to a user action to run the application (e.g., double click onan icon representing the authoring software 350 on the desktop). Inresponse to the activation of the authoring software 350, the operatingsystem generates a window corresponding to the activated authoringsoftware 350 on the desktop screen of the multi-window operating systemdisplayed on the display device.

Then, processing proceeds to step 420 in which the user opens theediting target document 322. In the embodiment of the present invention,the authoring software 350 reads data on the editing target document 322from the page storage 320 in response to opening of the editing targetdocument 332 as a web page, and displays it on the screen. For example,step 420 can be executed by double click on an icon corresponding to anexisting document on the desktop. Step 420 can also be executed byselecting “new document creation” from a pull-down menu to create a newdocument. In this case, new page data is formed in the page storage 320.In either case, since this step is well known, those skilled in the artcan execute this step appropriately. Therefore, further detaileddescription will be omitted here.

Then, processing proceeds to step 425 to determine whether to use atheme. If it is determined in step 425 that no theme is used, processingproceeds to step 445 according to the arrow of NO without setting anyattribute parameter to be applied, doing interactive page editing usingthe material view and the like.

If it is determined in step 425 that the theme function is used,processing proceeds to step 430 according to the arrow of YES. In step430, a theme is set by the user for the editing target document 322according to the navigation of the authoring software 350. The themeconsists of a set of one or more attribute parameters to be applied toelements (including materials) within an editing target page, and theapplication of such a theme enables the editing target page to have asense of unity.

Next, processing proceeds to step 435 to apply a sub-parameter. Thesub-parameter indicates the degree of how much the theme is applied tothe material to be inserted into the editing target document. Then,processing proceeds to step 440 to determine, based on the theme set instep 430 and the sub-parameter set in step 435, parameters finally to beapplied to the material to be inserted into the editing target document.

Next, processing proceeds to step 445 to edit a page interactively usingthe material view and the like. In step 445, the user can operate thewindow shown in FIG. 9 to carry on creating content efficiently in aninteractive manner. The details of step 445 will be described later withreference to FIGS. 5 and 6. An example of the window corresponding tothe authoring software in step 445 will be described with reference toFIG. 9.

Processing proceeds to step 450. In step 450, it is determined whetherthe editing the target page to be edited is completed. If it isdetermined in step 450 that it is not completed, processing returns tostep 445 according to the arrow of NO to continue editing the targetdocument 322. If it is determined in step 450 that editing is completed,termination processing such as to store the edited content is performed,and processing proceeds to step 455 according to the arrow of YES toend.

Next, an example of the processing for a page editing using a materialview 930 in step 445 of FIG. 4 will be described in further detail withreference to flowcharts 500 and 600 of FIG. 5 and FIG. 6. Processingstarts at step 505, and in step 510, it is determined whether to use thematerial view 930.

If it is determined in step 510 that the material view 930 is not used,processing proceeds to step 515 according to the arrow of NO to do pageediting without the material view 930. Since further detaileddescription of this page editing without the material view 930 isunnecessary, it will be omitted here. Next, processing proceeds to step520 to end (go to step 450).

If it is determined in step 510 that the material view 930 is used,processing proceeds to step 525 according to the arrow of YES. In theembodiment of the present invention, when an instruction to display thematerial view 930 is given, the material view 930 is determined to beused. In the embodiment of the present invention, the instruction todisplay the material view 930 is given by clicking a tab labeled“material” but this is just an example and the way of giving theinstruction is not limited to this. For example, such an instructionmay, of course, be given via a menu bar 905 or a tool bar 910.

In step 525, a directory in which materials are stored is browsed in amaterial explorer 935 to explore necessary materials from material datastored in each directory of the material data storage 330. In anembodiment of the present invention, it is assumed that materialsrelated to animals belonging to an illustration category of imagematerials are explored. Processing proceeds to step 530, and materialsexplored in step 530 are retrieved from a material database.

Then, processing proceeds to step 535 to determine whether there is aset of one or more attribute parameters to be applied to a material tobe inserted into the editing target page. In an embodiment of thepresent invention, the set of attribute parameters is determined in step440. Therefore, if a theme is set for the editing target page, it isdetermined that there is a set of attribute parameters. On the otherhand, if no theme is set for the editing target page, it is determinedthat there is no set of attribute parameters.

If it is determined in step 535 that there is a set of attributeparameters, processing proceeds to step 540 according to the arrow ofYES, and the set of attribute parameters is applied to the materials forpreview clipped in step 530. As a result, the materials for preview areconverted (changed in color, frame added, changed in brightness, etc.).After that, processing proceeds to step 550 to store the convertedmaterials for preview in the preview cache 358.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step 535 that there is no setof attribute parameter, processing proceeds to step 545 according to thearrow of NO, in which the materials for preview clipped in step 530 areadopted intact as the final materials for preview. After that,processing proceeds to step 550 to store the materials for preview inthe preview cache 358.

Then, processing proceeds to step 555, in which the materials forpreview stored in step 550 in the preview cache 358 are put in amaterial box 940 as a list box and presented in such a manner that theuser can select any of them. After that, processing moves to flowchart600 shown in FIG. 6 via (A) 560.

Here, the user interface including the material view according to theembodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 9 shows anexample (with theme unset) of the graphical user interface of theauthoring system of the embodiment of the present invention. The window900 includes the menu bar 905, the tool bar 910, an editing target pagedisplay area 915, an edit view 920, an HMTL source view 925, thematerial view 930, the material explorer 935, and the material box 940.

The menu bar 905 provides the user with various functions such as fileoperation and display control. Similarly, the tool bar 910 providesvarious functions, such as file operation and display control, as buttonicons. An existing editing target page is opened or a new page iscreated by using the menu bar 905 or the tool bar 910. Since thesefunctions of the bars are well known, further detailed descriptionsthereof will be omitted here.

The page display area 915 is an area in which the editing target page isdisplayed. The editing target page can be displayed in the page displayarea as the edit view 920 that is a WISIWIG editor or the HTML sourceview 925 that displays the editing target page in HTML format. The editview 920 has the function of updating the display of the editing targetpage to the latest version in response to editing of the editing targetpage.

The material view 930 presents the user page components (image,animation, sound, and other page components) prepared in advance so thatuser can use these materials to create a page effectively. The materialview 930 includes the material explorer 935 and the material box 940.

The user can use the material explorer 935 to browse the directory inwhich material data are stored. The material box 940 presents the usermaterial data residing in the directory specified by the materialexplorer 935. Then, the user can select one of the materials presentedin the material box 940 and perform a material insert action such asdrag and drop to the page display area 915 of the edit view 920 toinsert the selected material, thereby enabling effective creation of acontent.

The user as a content creator can use the window 900 as an interactivegraphical user interface of the authoring software 350 including theseuser interface elements 905 to 940 to edit the editing target document322 in order to create a web content effectively.

Note that since no theme is set via the graphical user interface of theauthoring system of an embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG.9, the preview of materials shown in the material view consists ofthumbnails of original materials themselves.

Referring next to FIG. 10, another example of the graphical userinterface of the authoring system of an embodiment of the presentinvention when a theme is set together with a template is described. Inthe example shown in FIG. 10, it is assumed that “pastel monotone” isselected as the theme to be applied to the editing target page. Sincethe description of the theme “pastel monotone” has already been madewith reference to FIG. 12, detailed description thereof will be omittedhere. Note that since the theme “pastel monotone” is set for the editingtarget page, each material displayed in the material view 930 becomesmore pastel monotone than that shown in FIG. 9.

Flowchart 600 starts from (A)560. Next, in step 605, a material to beinserted is selected in the material box 940. Then, processing proceedsto step 610, in which a certain material insert action is done, i.e., inthe embodiment of the present invention, the material displayed in thematerial view is dragged and dropped onto the page in the edit view.

After the material insert action in step 610, processing proceeds tostep 615 to determine whether there is a set of attribute parameters tobe applied to the material within the editing target page. As mentionedabove, in the embodiment of the present invention, this set of attributeparameters is determined in step 440. Therefore, if a theme is set forthe editing target page, it is determined that there is a set ofattribute parameters. On the other hand, if no theme is set for theediting target page, it is determined that there is no set of attributeparameters.

If it is determined in step 615 that there is a set of attributeparameters, processing proceeds to step 620 according to the arrow ofYES, and the attribute parameters are applied to the material selectedin step 605. As a result, the material is converted (changed in color,frame added, changed in brightness, etc.). After that, processingproceeds to step 630 to insert the converted material into the editingtarget document 322. Next, processing proceeds to step 635 to end (go tostep 450).

If it is determined in step 615 that there is no attribute parameter,processing proceeds to step 625 according to the arrow of NO, in whichthe material selected in step 605 is adopted and copied as a material tobe finally inserted as it is. After that, processing proceeds to step630 to insert the material into the editing target document 322. Next,processing proceeds to step 635 to end (go to step 450).

FIG. 11 shows still another example of the window (after inserting thematerial) corresponding to the authoring software 350 displayed on thedisplay device of the authoring system 100 according to an embodiment ofthe present invention. Note that since “pastel monotone” is selected asthe theme to be applied to the editing target page, the preview ofmaterials displayed in the material view 930 and the material newlyinserted in the editing target document displayed in the edit view 920have become “pastel monotone.”

Referring next to flowcharts 700 and 800 of FIG. 7 and FIG. 8, anotherexample of page editing processing using the material view 930 and thelike in step 435 of FIG. 4 will be described. In this example,parameters to be applied can correspond to different themes depending onthe position at which a material is to be inserted in the editing targetpage.

Flowcharts 700 and 800 are almost the same as flowcharts 500 and 600,and the processing content of each corresponding step is essentially thesame. However, note that selection of a material inserting position instep 725, parameter determination depending on the material insertingposition in step 745, and parameter determination depending on thematerial inserting position in step 820 are added in this example. Insuch steps, for example, the material inserting position is selected byclicking a position at which the material is expected to be inserted inthe edit view. A set of attribute parameters to be applied to thematerial is determined depending on the selection. The determined set ofattribute parameters is applied to form a preview displayed in thematerial view and the material to be inserted in the edit view.

As an example, in order to carry out these steps, a file describingcorrespondences between positions in the editing target document andattribute parameters to be applied is stored in the system so that thefile can be used to determine, in steps 745 and 820, attributeparameters to be applied to the material inserting position selected instep 725. In the file, a position in the editing target document can bespecified using position information on a tag configuration representedby XPath or the like, or a style selector to select a style, such asclass, ID, or tag, can be used to specify the position. However, the wayof specifying the position is not limited to these.

FIG. 13 and FIG. 14 show an example of the editing target document 322created according to an HTML specification in the embodiment of thepresent invention. FIG. 13 shows an HTML source before a material isinserted and FIG. 14 shows the HTML source after the material isinserted. Note that, in the editing target document before theimmaterial is inserted as shown in FIG. 13, a CSS (Cascading StyleSheets) file (“hpb9tm05_8.css”) associated with a selected theme (i.e.,specified in a theme file) is designated. The designation of the CSSfile in this editing target document can be changed by changing thetheme.

In the embodiment of the present invention, a set of attributeparameters of a theme file to be applied to the editing target page isidentified. Note that, in the page after the material is inserted asshown in FIG. 13, the material (“file:///C:/DocumentsandSettings/user/Application Data/application/tmp/hb9tm05_8/ani016.gif”)converted by applying thereto the set of attribute parameters includedin the theme file is inserted.

As mentioned above, although the example of the editing target document322 as a web page created according to the HTML specification in theembodiment of the present invention has been described with reference toFIG. 13 and FIG. 14, the details of the HTML specification are wellknown to those skilled in the art as described in Non-Patent Document 3and the like. Therefore, since those skilled in the art who has readthis specification can make additions to and changes in the content,further detailed description will be omitted.

As described above, according to an embodiment of the present invention,there can be provided an authoring system, software, and method forefficiently supporting editing and creation of an electronic document(page) as a web content. It will be readily appreciated that theproductivity of users who operate a content authoring system to createcontents can be enhanced.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof code, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be notedthat, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in theblock may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, twoblocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantiallyconcurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverseorder, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be notedthat each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, andcombinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchartillustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-basedsystems that perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations ofspecial purpose hardware and computer instructions.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system comprising: one or more processors, oneor more computer-readable memories and one or more computer-readable,tangible storage devices; program instructions, stored on at least oneof the one or more storage devices for execution by at least one of theone or more processors via at least one of the one or more memories, toidentify a theme to be applied to a document to be edited; and programinstructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devicesfor execution by at least one of the one or more processors via at leastone of the one or more memories, to display the document and a previewof one or more components insertable into the document, wherein thepreview is formed and presented prior to the insertion of at least oneof the components by applying the identified theme to the components. 2.The system according to claim 1, wherein the preview is formed byconverting the one or more components according to at least some of aset of one or more attribute parameters associated with the identifiedtheme.
 3. The system according to claim 2, further comprising: programinstructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devicesfor execution by at least one of the one or more processors via at leastone of the one or more memories, to accept selection of a position atwhich a component is inserted into the document, wherein the set ofattribute parameters is determined depending on the selected position todisplay a preview of the component to which at least some of thedetermined set of attribute parameters have been applied.
 4. The systemaccording to claim 2, further comprising: program instructions, storedon at least one of the one or more storage devices for execution by atleast one of the one or more processors via at least one of the one ormore memories, to allow a user to select some of the set of attributeparameters to be applied to the document, wherein a preview ofcomponents to which some of the selected attribute parameters have beenapplied is displayed.
 5. The system according to claim 4, furthercomprising: program instructions, stored on at least one of the one ormore storage devices for execution by at least one of the one or moreprocessors via at least one of the one or more memories, to insert, intothe document, the components to which some of the selected attributeparameters have been applied.
 6. The system according to claim 1,further comprising: program instructions, stored on at least one of theone or more storage devices for execution by at least one of the one ormore processors via at least one of the one or more memories, to applythe theme to at least one of the one or more components in response to apredetermined user action and inserting the component into the document.7. The system according to claim 6, wherein the predetermined useraction is drag-and-drop of the preview.
 8. The system according to claim1, further comprising: program instructions, stored on at least one ofthe one or more storage devices for execution by at least one of the oneor more processors via at least one of the one or more memories, to,when at least one of the one or more components is to be inserted, applyat least some of a set of attribute parameters associated with the themeare applied to convert the component.
 9. The system according to claim1, further comprising: program instructions, stored on at least one ofthe one or more storage devices for execution by at least one of the oneor more processors via at least one of the one or more memories, tostore a plurality of themes, wherein the identifying means identifies atheme selected by a user from the plurality of themes.
 10. The systemaccording to claim 2, wherein the set of attribute parameters to beapplied to the components to be inserted into the document is stored inone or more files separately from the document.
 11. The system accordingto claim 10, wherein the separate one or more files include definitionof cascading style sheets called for the document.
 12. The systemaccording to claim 1, wherein the components are image components andthe preview consists of thumbnails of the image components.
 13. Thesystem according to claim 2, wherein the components are image componentsand the set of attribute parameters include at least one of parametersof theme color, theme background color, color translation, shapetransformation, conversion to add a frame, contrast conversion,temperature conversion, and color temperature conversion.
 14. The systemaccording to claim 1, wherein the document is a multimedia structureddocument.
 15. The system according to claim 1, wherein the document iscreated in an HTML or XML format.
 16. The system according to claim 1,wherein the components are any of image data, animation data, vectordata, text data, and HTML data, or a combination thereof.
 17. A methodcomprising: at least one processor, executing program instructionsstored in a storage device, identifying a theme to be applied to adocument to be edited; and at least one processor, executing programinstructions stored in a storage device, displaying the document and apreview of one or more components insertable into the document, whereinthe preview is formed and presented prior to the insertion of at leastone of the components by applying the identified theme to thecomponents.
 18. The method of claim 17, wherein the preview is formed byconverting the one or more components according to at least some of aset of one or more attribute parameters associated with the identifiedtheme, said method comprising: at least one processor, executing programinstructions stored in a storage device, applying the theme to at leastone of the one or more components in response to a predetermined useraction and inserting the component into the document at least oneprocessor, executing program instructions stored in a storage device,when at least one of the one or more components is to be inserted,applying at least some of a set of attribute parameters associated withthe theme are applied to convert the component.
 19. The method of claim17, wherein the components are image components and the preview consistsof thumbnails of the image components, wherein the document is amultimedia structured document, wherein the document is created in anHTML or XML format.
 20. A computer program product comprising: one ormore computer-readable storage devices; program instructions, stored onat least one of the one or more storage devices, to identify a theme tobe applied to a document to be edited; and program instructions, storedon at least one of the one or more storage devices, to display thedocument and a preview of one or more components insertable into thedocument, wherein the preview is formed and presented prior to theinsertion of at least one of the components by applying the identifiedtheme to the components